Isolation and morphological characterization of natural killer cell in the sprague-dawley(SD) rats

Sprague-dawley(SD) 랫드에서 natural killer cell의 분리 ·동정 및 형태적 특징

This study was performed to demonstrate the presence of large granular lymphocyte(LGL) in Sprague-Dawley(SD) rats and morphologically observe NK cell and also establish the method of isolation of natural killer cell in SD rats. By percoll discontinuous density gradients centrifugation, highly enriched LGL population were shown to fraction 2(border line between 44.2% and 50.8%). LGL were shown to bind selectively to YAC1 mouse lymphoma cell. This fraction expressed very high NK cell cytolysis. Therefore, we thought that LGL have NK activity in SD rats. The Morphology of rat LGL is very similar to that of human LGL. These cells have an eccentric kidney-shaped nucleus. Their most distinctive feature was their cytoplasmic azurophilic granules. Another distinguishing feature of rat LGL was their high cytoplasmic : nuclear ratio. It was concluded that LGL played a role part in mediating natural killer activity in this species.